Lyons firefighters running the Bolder Boulder to rebuild their station

By Scott Rochat

Times-Call staff writer

Posted:
05/18/2014 03:15:59 PM MDT

Updated:
05/19/2014 09:54:06 AM MDT

Desi Sugden, 7, bowls to have fun and help the Lyons Fire Station repairs. Members of the Lyons Fire Protection District held the "Bowling for Heroes" fundraising benefit at Centennial Lanes in Longmont on Sunday. (Cliff Grassmick / For the Times-Call)

Lyons firefighters are taking a run at rebuilding their fire station.

The volunteers of the Lyons Fire Protection District have entered the Bolder Boulder, hoping to use the race to raise money and attention for their "Fire vs. Flood" rebuilding effort. September's flood wiped out the district's Fire Station No. 2, along with a new fire truck and other equipment.

The campaign is a year-long one. It needs to be. So far, the district has raised $10,000 of the $360,000 it needs.

"If it was only the insurance money and the FEMA money, we would just have a garage," said probationary firefighter Victor Oliveira, who's heading up the Bolder Boulder effort. "That's it."

Mary Hubbard celebrates one of her early strikes in the bowling fundraiser. (Cliff Grassmick / For the Times-Call)

Because of the flood damage, the firefighters have had to concentrate everything out of Station No. 1 and there simply isn't room to do that. At night, it's not uncommon for a firefighter to park a truck outside his home because there isn't room to put it anywhere else.

The first time the 10K Memorial Day race was brought up, Oliveira said, the idea was just to make it a rally point, a chance for the firefighters to show solidarity and keep in shape.

"One of the big causes of death in fire departments is cardiac arrest," he said. "You can lift weights and be as strong as you want, but it's all about the cardio."

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But it didn't take long to decide it should be a full-bore part of the flood campaign. That comes just a week after Sunday's "Bowling for Heroes" fundraiser in Longmont, though well ahead of a November black-tie event in dinner that the fire district is pinning a lot of hopes on.

Meanwhile, there's already one Bolder Boulder-specific gift. Firefighters had approached Newton Running Lab about getting a shoe discount for the race; the company instead donated shoes for every participant.

The race won't find them unready. Not only does the Lyons district do three or four physical training sessions a week, Oliveira said, but at least five of the 40 volunteers have run the race before — including Oliveira.

All the fire district's participants will be at the Pearl Street Mall from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday to draw attention to the fundraising campaign. The crew will be near Pearl and 17th streets

The big hope, he said, is that the district can get attention and help from outside their own small town, which has already invested a lot of time and money in the community's recovery.

"The citizens of Lyons, we can't ask them to give any more," he said. "They're strapped."

Those wanting to give can go online to lyonsfire.org and click on "donate."